Resident Evil 6: New Release Date, No Wii U PlansPlay the game sooner than you thought.April 10, 2012

by Andrew GoldfarbDuring last week's Captivate conference in Rome, Capcom revealed that Resident Evil 6 will be headed to stores far earlier than we thought. While the game was previously announced with a release date of November 20th, Capcom has now confirmed that it will be released on October 2nd.

The news comes alongside a slew of new multiplayer details and new gameplay footage revealed at the event, plus news on the rest of Capcom's upcoming slate of releases.

In addition, we sat down with the game's producers, Yoshiaki Hirabayashi and Hiroyuki Kobayashi, as well as director Eiichiro Sasaki to inquire about Resident Evil 6's potential place on Wii U, which is set to launch before the end of the year. Given the timing of its release and other high-profile titles recently announced for the system, does Resident Evil 6 have a place on Nintendo's new platform?

"Unfortunately, RE6 will not be available at this time on the Wii U," Kobayashi told us. "Right now we're concentrating on the PlayStation 3 version, 360 version and the PC version of the game."

It's worth noting that Kobayashi specifically uses the words "at this time," which still leaves the possibility open for a Wii U announcement in the future. Since the system's unveiling at E3 2011, Nintendo has been keeping a lid on most of Wii U's launch details, though more info is expected to come at E3 2012.

299.99 seems like the perfect price point, and the controller costing $50 is great news, meaning nintendo may offer it at cost initially and then over time economies of scale will make it profitable. though they will probably make it 60-80, seeing as you only need 1 extra.

Nintendo to Show Mario, Pikmin for Wii U at E3Miyamoto also working on smaller but important Wii U projects.UK, April 16, 2012

by Daniel KrupaIGN UKUPDATE 2 (4:00 P.M. PST): Nintendo has confirmed that both Pikmin and Mario will make appearances at E3 2012 on Wii U.

Nintendo released the following statement regarding Pikmin:"In a recent interview, Mr. Miyamoto confirmed that a new Pikmin game will be shown at the E3 Expo in June. He believes that anyone who has played Pikmin games in the past will enjoy playing."

Separately, Nintendo said the following about Mario:

"In a recent interview, Mr. Miyamoto confirmed that a new Super Mario Bros. game for the Wii U system will be shown at this year's E3 Expo. This is based on the Mario experience that was demonstrated at last year's E3 Expo. We'll have more to announce about our plans for the E3 Expo at a later date."

Original story follows:

UPDATE (11:00 A.M. PST): Nintendo has confirmed to Eurogamer that it will indeed be announcing a brand new Super Mario Bros. game for Wii U at this year's E3 press conference. Keep it here on IGN for all the details as they emerge.

ORIGNAL STORY (7:00 A.M. PST): Shigeru Miyamoto has implied that a new Mario game for Wii U will be revealed at this year's E3. The news comes from an interview Miyamoto gave to Spanish newspaper El Mundo (via GAF).

The passage in question roughly translates as:

"[Miyamoto] anticipates that at E3, the largest exhibition of video games, held in June in Los Angeles, Nintendo will launch a new Super Mario for this platform, which will combine the TV screen with the remote." (Google Translate)

In the same interview, Miyamoto also said that he was currently focused on smaller but important projects for Wii U, Pikmin 3 and Luigi's Mansion 2 for 3DS.

Miyamoto also revealed that he wants to do more with the idea behind Wii Music. He acknowledged the game's disappointing reception, saying, "It is always sad when something does not sell as well as expected." Still, he believes there's a good idea in there somewhere, and revealed that when something under performs, the developers at Nintendo "usually try to work the best idea or at least take it up and concretize it from a different angle for use in another title."

At its last investor's presentation in January, Nintendo announced it was working on a new 2D Mario adventure game. Outside of a release date prior to April 2013, no further details were given by company president Satoru Iwata. However just days ago, Nintendo registered a domain for 'supermario4.com'.

The publisher isn't attempting to hide this registry. A quick search shows that Nintendo of America controls the domain, and typing in the address will actually redirect to Nintendo's website. It's important to keep in mind that the registry doesn't directly indicate the presence of a product - companies tie up URLs all the time - but it could mean something.

Of course, while our immediate suspicions point towards this being the 2D 3DS game, it could be something else entirely - a Wii U launch title, perhaps?

Here's hoping we see Mario finally move to the number four. It took Street Fighter long enough to make it to three...

of course the wii u is nintendo's most powerful console, that's not the concern, it's whether or not it matches/how much it exceeds MS and Sony's current gen. if it's running direct X 11, it's a better console than any existing console, that much is a given.

Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series has grown astronomically since it first debuted over a decade ago. Now considered one of the publisher's flagship franchises, the manic fighting series has more than quadrupled its playable roster, introduced characters from third party companies, featured a stage editor and even a robust, story-driven single-player campaign. Its latest installment,Super Smash Bros. Brawl is figuratively bursting at the seams with content. What, then, could franchise creator Masahiro Sakurai possibly do with the Wii U and 3DS versions?

I'm really just getting started on this so it's going to take time."As you noted, there is a certain dead end we come to if we just expand the volume of the game," Sakurai told me in a recent e-mail interview, clearly recognizing that simply adding more characters, items and stages wouldn't be enough. The Smash Bros. franchise, though repeatedly earning high praise from critics over its three entries, has effectively followed the same formula since its inception, evolving its style of play without shaking things up too much. So if merely expanding the idea isn't the only thing on Sakurai's mind... what is?

"I intend to change direction a little as we go," Sakurai said, indicating his desire to possbily find a new mechanic or idea to drive two new entries in the series. "The key to that's going to be its dual support for 3DS/Wii U."

Sakurai, as well as Nintendo global president Satoru Iwata, had previously acknowledged his interest in linking the 3DS and Wii U versions of the game, which were announced simultaneously at E3 2011. "I'm really just getting started on this so it's going to take time, but I'll come up with something that uses that link as the game's central axis, so I hope you're looking forward to it."

Sakurai's remarks came in the midst of a larger conversation about Kid Icarus Uprising, which was recently released for theNintendo 3DS. The developer, who is also the Director of the Board for Project Sora, a subsidiary developer of Nintendo, mentioned he is now concentrating his efforts on the next two installments of Smash Bros. With development just getting started, it seems as though fans of the series will still have to wait some time before watching Mario and Link battle it out.

"An internal video showing images of Rayman Origins' sequel has leaked over the Internet. This video was intended as a purely internal demonstrative video, and in NO way represents the final game, the final console or their features. This video was destined for internal production teams who often create game prototypes with work in progress development kits. Ubisoft confirms the development of Rayman Legends handled by Michel Ancel and his team in Montpellier."

Original story follows:

A leaked trailer for Rayman Legends on Wii U shows details of the console's functionality, including touch control, graphics and near-field communication capabilities.

The trailer, which originally went up on YouTube, has since been pulled - luckily, we grabbed a copy, which you can see below. As well as confirming the game's existence, it also shows off some really cool Wii U features.

The first half of the trailer shows of gameplay footage which indicates (superficially at least) that the Wii U is at least up to the graphical standards of PS3 and 360, and demonstrates players using a combination of tablets and Wii remotes to control the game in different ways, using a combination of touch and button control.

The second half of the trailer, though, shows that the Wii U can react to objects places on the tablet screen - rather like how Activision's Skylanders figures interact with the game. It shows a player placing a plastic heart on the tablet screen, which translates into an in-game power-up, and magicking a Rabbid into the game with another figurine. At the end, most excitingly, it teases an Ezio figurine.

These are things that Nintendo presumably won't want us to know before E3, when we'll be given a full introduction to the new console.

UPDATE: A note on the wired controllers: Wii U dev kits are currently wired to their tablets, as evidenced at E3 last year, but this will not be the case with the final product.

"Iwata added that the Wii U's own price will not be announced at the E3 trade show in June."

WHAT???

just like last time the price point and the official date will be announced just a couple months before launch. it's a way of drawing out the attention/hype between E3 (where hype will be at an all time high) and launch date (where hype is at a fever pitch). in between those two points is a lull of nothingness as they hunker down to make sure everything is good to go. odds are fairly good it will be august when it's announced (price and launch date)

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata spoke confidently about the future of the 3DS and Wii U in explaining last week’s digital distribution announcement during the Q&A portion of last week’s investors briefing in Tokyo.

“[W]e have not designed [Nintendo 3DS and Wii U] to be mere improved versions of their predecessors,” Iwata said. “We have designed them so that they can realize what has been impossible.”Since the launch of Nintendo 3DS last year, Nintendo has put more of an emphasis on developing traditional games for hard-core players and less on Brain Age-style games for casual players. Iwata said that this was a deliberate strategy.“[R]egrettably, what we prioritized in order to reach out to the new audience [on Wii and DS] was a bit too far from what we prioritized for those who play games as their hobby. Consequently, we presume some people felt that the Wii was not a game system for them or they were not willing to play with the Wii even though some compelling games had been released,” he said.

“Once consumers have a notion that ‘this system is not for us,’ we have learned that it is extremely difficult to change their perceptions later,” Iwata said. “Therefore, in promoting the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U, we have announced that we would like ‘width’ and ‘depth’ to coexist. With the Nintendo DS and the Wii, the approach of ‘width’ was well accepted by many people; however, what we did in terms of ‘depth’ was not satisfactory for some consumers. This time, we would like consumers to be satisfied in both aspects. In order to do so, we started to work on the ‘depth’ aspect first, and the current and existing software you can see for the Nintendo 3DS is based on that idea.”If Wii U and 3DS appear to be just enhanced iterations of Nintendo’s previous machines, “because the company is yet to provide what it has done for the Nintendo DS with the Brain Age series or for the Wii with Wii Sports and Wii Fit,” Iwata said, it is only because Nintendo has not yet introduced software that truly makes them stand out.He asked for patience, saying that just as “not so many people were able to comprehend the potential” of the killer apps for Wii and DS prior to their release dates, “it is not easy for us to convince many people by explaining what kind of new experiences we are developing now.” Iwata was also wary that if he explained projects under development too early, “it is possible that products with similar concepts could be launched before Nintendo itself can finalize and launch the products.”Iwata faced many questions about Nintendo’s plan to offer downloadable games both on its own eShop store as well as on shelves at regular game retailers. He denied that digital games have less value than physical ones, because “being able to store a number of software titles in a hardware system” is an advantage consumers might prefer.

Disney, Zade Rosenthal, File/Associated Press - FILE - In this undated file image released by Disney, Chris Hemsworth portrays Thor, left, and and Chris Evans portrays Captain America in a scene from “The Avengers.” “The Avengers” are teaming up for a motion-control video game. Ubisoft on May 9, 2012 announced a partnership with Marvel to create a game based on the superhero alliance for Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U console and Microsoft’s Kinect system for the Xbox 360.

By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, May 10, 7:00 AM

LOS ANGELES — Now that they’ve saved the world on film, “The Avengers” are teaming up for a motion-control video game. Ubisoft Entertainment announced a partnership Thursday with Marvel Entertainment to create a game based on the popular Marvel superhero posse. The game will be titled “Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth” and will be released for both the upcoming Wii U console from Nintendo Co. and the camera-based Kinect system for the Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp.

“The idea that we’re making a motion-control version of ‘The Avengers’ is a unique proposition if you compare that to superhero games of the past,” said Tony Key, Ubisoft’s vice president of sales and marketing, in making the announcement to The Associated Press. “This is the perfect type of game for that because these characters are very action oriented. They’re always fighting and throwing things.”

“Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth” will focus on such characters as Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk fending off an invasion of genetically altered Skrull aliens. The title will feature more than 20 characters from the Marvel universe and would be based on the “Secret Invasion” comic series, not the recent film. No release date was announced, but Key said the disc-based title is expected to launch after Nintendo debuts the Wii U later this year. The successor to Nintnedo’s Wii will feature high-definition graphics, increased online capabilities and a touch-pad controller. He said more details about the game would be unveiled at next month’s Electronic Entertainment Expo.

The game will be the latest addition to Ubisoft’s motion-control arsenal. Previous titles released by the Canadian publisher that rely on gesture-based devices include the artsy shooter “Child of Eden,” street brawler “Fighters Uncaged,” superhero dueler “PowerUp Heroes,” the “Your Shape” fitness franchise and top-selling “Just Dance” series.

“Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth” will mark the first time that the “Assassin’s Creed” publisher has developed a game based on a franchise from Marvel, which was purchased in 2009 by The Walt Disney Co. The developers previously worked with “Avatar” director James Cameron to craft a third-person 3-D action-adventure game set on the planet Pandora.

Sega created each of the games pegged to the films of “The Avengers” forerunners, including last year’s “Thor: God of Thunder” and “Captain America: Super Soldier,” but there was no console game released this year alongside director Joss Whedon’s blockbuster “The Avengers,” just the mobile game “Marvel’s The Avengers” and Facebook title “Marvel: Avengers Alliance.”

Fans freaked out last year over unofficial footage and concept art posted online of a first-person “Avengers” game that was reportedly in development by THQ Inc. The footage of Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America and Thor battling the infamous Skrull was yanked by Marvel from YouTube. A representative for Marvel declined to be interviewed for this story.

Traditionally, games based on Marvel movies have been released around the same time as their super-powered counterparts to benefit from parallel buzz. The open-world action-adventure title “The Amazing Spider-Man” from Activision Inc. is set for release June 26, ahead of director Marc Webb’s film of the same name on July 3.

The big-screen adaptation of “The Avengers” starring Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye has smashed box office records, earning $207.4 million domestically in its opening weekend.

“For us, that obviously raises the brand itself to an even higher level, and that’s good for our video game because we have an opportunity to reach a broader audience than just the guys who love comic book characters,” said Key, who added that “Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth” would be family friendly despite the game’s focus on fighting.

Marvel’s superheroes have been a dominant presence throughout the history of games. They most recently assembled for the Capcom brawler “Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3” and the Activision Inc. role-playing sequel “Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2.” Gazillion Entertainment is currently developing a free-to-play online game featuring them called “Marvel Heroes.”

Get ready to execute barrel rolls with a touch screen controller because Star Fox is coming to Wii U.

Nintendo seems to have finally learned its lesson after the Nintendo 3DS: Don’t put out a new machine without a solid line up of classic franchises to go with it. The Wii U should have plenty from the sounds of things. Shigeru Miyamoto said in April that both a Wii U New Super Mario Bros. game and a Pikmin for the touch screen console will be shown off at E3 in June. If a new rumor from the U.K. is correct, Star Fox Wii U will also be on hand.

Techtroid claimed on Friday that, according to a source inside Nintendo, Star Fox Wii U will make its first appearance at E3. Q Games, the creators of Star Fox and the team behind more recent entries like Star Fox Command of Star Fox 64 3D, reportedly won’t be the team behind Star Fox Wii U. Retro Studios, the creators of Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country Returns are allegedly handling the new adventures of Fox McCloud.

Retro is a great studio with a solid track record working on Nintendo’s classic franchises. Still, it’s worrisome to hear that anyone but Q Games is working on the game. The only games in the series not handled by Q Games, Rare’s Starfox Adventures and Namco’s Star Fox Assault, were both pretty atrocious.

I'd buy that the second it comes out. Retro studios is amazing, and if they do with Starfox what they did with Metroid I'd be ecstatic.

Marvel Super Heroes is essentially The Avengers 2, with the exception of all the superheroes picking each other off before reaching Thanos. I have such fond memories of it, and it has always been overlooked because of Marvel vs Capcom. Great choice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eh6HvJqYDc&feature=related

It has a fantastic soundtrack too.

Meanwhile, this is all I can think of when I see that the console's name is "Wii-U".

The days of losing your memory card are truly about to be over. Joining the PS3 and the Xbox 360 in the cloud game, Nintendo will apparently bring the option of storing game save files and user profiles to the Wii U. It’s hopefully part of a bigger initiative from the company to make the next console truly and fully connected to the Internet, something the Wii is sorely missing.

Nintendo has gained a lot of rightful accolades for a lot of things. It is a marketing powerhouse, it knows how to connect with its fans, and when it comes to its killer franchises, it never cuts corners. But there’s one thing that hasn’t been associated with Nintendo for decades – the bleeding edge of technology. But offering cloud saving will take it at least in the right direction.

Apparently, the service will give users 512 MB of storage, which should be enough for dozens of save files. Unfortunately, this doesn’t exactly give Nintendo a competitive advantage. Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 have cloud saving options, but it is good that Nintendo is catching up when it comes to online connectivity.http://www.slashgear...orage-15228468/

Early listings for Wii U games suggest that Nintendo plans to keep new titles affordable. We look at the evidence that suggests you will only have to plunk down $50 clams for New Super Mario Bros. Wii U.

Nintendo shareholders and fans don’t often share worries. Both groups for example are anxiously awaiting the release of New Super Mario Bros. 2, one because entries in the series produce close to $1 billion in sales over a couple of years, and the other because THIS ONE MIGHT BRING BACK THE HAMMER BROS. SUIT OMG! There worries don’t typically jive. The business-minded see a new Metroidand get concerned about profits, where fans wonder if it’ll properly depict Samus as a powerful bounty hunter in a skintight leotard.

In an unusual moment of shared purpose, both groups are worried about the Wii U being too expensive. The expectation is that Wii U will cost at least $300 when it comes out this fall, a hefty sum considering the device’s horsepower similarity to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Both groups can rest a bit easier about the price though as temporary retailer listings hint that Wii U will continue the Wii’s trend of keeping games themselves at more affordable prices.

NeoGAF user shinobi602 noted on Wednesday that Amazon’s listings for announced Wii U titles like Ninja Gaiden 3 and other, unconfirmed games like Tekken and Dirt are all listed at $49.99, making them $10 cheaper than new Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 titles.

Digital Trends reached out to Nintendo to see if the publisher could confirm that disc-based Wii U games would in fact be just $50. A Nintendo representative unsurprisingly told us, “Nintendo does not comment on rumors and speculation.”

There is however plenty of evidence to suggest that Nintendo will stick to that price point.

The first is the aforementioned price of Wii games. In 2005 and ’06 when the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 released, games retail openly embraced the $60 price point for new games, but Nintendo knew that its success would be in appealing to budget-minded consumers. Core games that spend big on games meanwhile would be mollified by a lower price because of the lower graphical fidelity of games on the system. Since the Wii U is positioning itself, like the Wii, as the low-tech console of the next generation of machines, it’s smart to continue the trend.

The other evidence is Nintendo’s stated commitment to keeping retailers happy as it transitions into a wider digital distribution business. The company said in its April announcement that Wii U games will be available as both discs and downloads that retailers were free to price digital games however they please. Cheap discs will keep people coming into stores, leading to solid sales as well as happy retail partners.

Video game publishing giant, and one of the leading Wii U games developers, Ubisoft is "extremely happy" with the functionality and use of Nintendo's new Wii U console.Although it may seem fishy coming from the company that's currently positioning itself to be the leading third party publisher for the new console, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot seems extremely confident in the Wi U's potential."What is really interesting is the fact that we have this tablet that allows us to bring totally new gameplay, and also brings the possibility to have a lot more social functionalities, because you can have now a screen to play asynchronously with your friends, to receive challenges and to really have a screen to communicate with your friends. That is going to help tremendously the experience in video games," Guillemot said during the Q&A portion of Ubisoft's annual earnings call.He added: "We feel that the more we grow, the more use we will have for social functions in our games. And the new gameplays - a lot have been invented in other platforms, so there are lots of new ideas that will come to console. So that will help to bring new games with good functionalities, and be very good in turn at usage.""So all this tells us," he went on, "that the machine can have a great success, because it will bring to families a good machine. And this will be for gamers but also for all the social games that are generally sold on the Wii. Going after those two types of populations will give a good chance for that machine to have a great success," Guillemot concluded.Back in April, Tony Key, senior VP of sales and marketing at Ubisoft, teased the the company has "big plans for the Wii U" which we've slowly seen more and more of in the recent weeks.Recently, Ubisoft announced Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth for the Wii U and Xbox 360 Kinect. Other Ubisoft games for the Wii U include Assassin's Creed 3 and Killer Freaks from Outer Space.Rayman Legends was also recently leaked via a Wii U demonstration video in April showing off some impressive NFC technology similar to that of Activision's Skylanders."Our goal is to continue to grow the brand with geographical expansion, and new platforms like Wii U," Ubisoft's financial presentation stressed. Will the Wii U be as promising as Ubisoft is making it out to be? It definitely sounds intriguing, but it looks like we'll have to wait until E3 to find out more about the system.